Traditions.....
This is the time of year to wish PEACE, JOY and LOVE to all, and say Merry Christmas!!! It is the time to experience Love, Light and Laughter in the sharing of experiences with family and friends.

In today's newspaper there was a cartoon, (not very funny) that depicted a tree approximately 20 feet tall, decorated with many round "Christmas decorations". There are two men standing nearby and one is saying to the other one,
"Christmas tree?!"
"NO, NO, NO!"
"It's now referred to as the well-lit, highly ornamented holiday plant."

Another item tells of a holiday scam that there is an e-mail virus disguised as an e-card from American Greetings' popular BlueMountain.com that advises recipient to download Macromedia Flash Plug-in to see the full card. Clicking on any part of the message launches a browser window and it could download virus malware that will search the hard drive for bank account numbers and log keystrokes when computer users log into financial web sites.

A sign of the times we are in, we say, and let it pass.

I will be the first to wish a Happy Chanukah (Hanukkah) to you if you happen to have the Jewish faith, Happy Winter Solstice if you are of the Celtic tradition, a blessed Ganesha Chaturti to if you if you happen to be Hindu, or even a Happy Kwanaa to you if you happen to have that belief (whatever religion that is, I am not certain), and I am sure there are many more I have not addressed here...

But DO NOT make me give up my traditions. They strengthen the moral fiber of the family and support loving relationships. PLEASE... Let me have my Christmas tree, my Christmas Carols, the school Christmas pagent, with the children all excited to be able play their part for the parents, the Mormon Tabernacle Chior (no I am not a Mormon) and the midnight service on Christmas eve. The Spirit of Christmas depicts the the Gift of Love that our Creator gives to us, and we can accept it along with the Peace and Joy that is a part of this Gift and share it with our fellow man or we can pretend that it is "old fashioned, passe' no longer applicable to us" - you choose.

I contend that since I was born in a country that claims to be founded upon a faith in Christianity and a belief in God, but because we have allowed the fear of offending someone who may have a different belief, our once great country has abandoned that foundation of faith, and sacrificed our belief in the Christ upon the alter of our love affair with political correctness.
WHAT have we become???

The result I see is that America is now foundering. It has been engaged in endless wars, loss of manufacturing jobs due to corporate greed for cheap labor to increase profits for themselves and their stockholders at the expense of the working but shrinking middle class Americans, resulting in a severe economic decline, while our "leaders" try unsuccessfully to bail out the perpetrators with tax payer money which has only resulted the national debt being launched into outer space - now well into the trillions (they tell us it is 10, no 11, no wait it is now up to 12 trillion... and that is without counting the actual figures that would show it to be actually be well into the 80 trillion area - if the entitlement programs were included - which by the way must be taken into account). Is this the gift that we want to give to our children? Whether consciously or not, it IS the gift we have given our children and grandchildren into perpetuity, the gift of an unpayable debt...

It is time to refocus, to allow our hearts to guide us back to our roots and traditions, whatever they may be - and that for me is the ability to openly and clearly wish to everyone Love, Joy, Peace on Earth, Goodwill to ALL men and a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Till next time,
Merlyn